Tuesday 6 December 2011 15.33 EST
First published on Tuesday 6 December 2011 15.33 EST

Asked when launching his book, Mexico: The Great Hope, at a literary festival, which were the three other books he'd say had changed his life, the presidential candidate was suddenly at a loss for words.

After four minutes, Enrique Peña Nieto managed to name the Bible, The Eagle's Throne, and, oh, a couple of best sellers by Jeffrey Archer. Except he mistakenly attributed the second book, a classic satire on Mexico's politics, to a historian and not novelist Carlos Fuentes; and, he hastily clarified, he had not read the good book entirely cover to cover.

These faux pas by the Institutional Revolutionary party candidate, famous for his good looks and telenovela star wife, at the international literary festival in Guadalajara, left Mexico's social and mainstream media buzzing with mockery. In one photo montage Peña Nieto is chastised by the Pope for not reading all the holy work. "The thing is, I don't remember who wrote it," his speech bubble replies.

It looked a gift for his presidential rival, Ernesto Cordero, of the governing National Action party, who told a radio interviewer the gaffes raised "serious doubts" about the PRI candidate. Cordero then named his three books: Animal Farm and Alice in Wonderland, correctly attributed, and Isle of Passion by Colombian Isabel Restrepo. Oops, the novel is written by Laura Restrepo, suggesting he mixed her up with Isabel Allende.

"These politicians are all puffed up with power, and don't read anything," Mexican author Elena Poniatowska told the Guardian. "At least they're now revealing their lack of culture for all to see."

Peña Nieto tried contrition, thanking the "critical and even funny" responses. Then his daughter kept things ticking over by retweeting a comment on his critics: "Hello to the bunch of wankers that come from the proletariat and only criticize those they envy". More damage limitation. Peña Nieto had, he tweeted, "had a talk with my children about respect and tolerance".

This comedy recalls President Vicente Fox's many cultural gaffes, one being his renaming of Argentina's literary giant, Jorge Luis Borges, as Borgues. And last year Fox tweeted congratulations to Mario Vargas Llosa for being the third Latin American to win the Nobel, with Borges and Octavio Paz. Borges never won the honour, even if he might have relished the joke.

• This article was amended on 7 December 2011. The original referred to Argentinian author José Luis Borges. This has been corrected.